Floor plan single-family house, 200 sqm, wooden house in American style, slab foundation

Attached is the architect's draft with measurements. Not all aspects pleased us, so we redesigned rooms (pictures in the original post).

To explain what we did not like about the architect's draft:
Ground floor:
- the recessed tall cabinets (3x60 cm) above the kitchen island are too far from the work area. Therefore, they need to be brought closer to the island/row. This, however, messes up the door to the pantry.
- the shower was forgotten in the guest bathroom (we only have one upstairs in the family bathroom).
- door between pantry and utility room, as it takes up space in the pantry. Additionally, the utility room, with 10 sqm, would have had 2 doors, which is certainly suboptimal for all the technology that will be placed there.

We liked the positioning of the wardrobe.

Upper floor:
- children’s room huge with almost 30 sqm.
- my husband did not like the idea of having to walk from one corner of the house to the farthest corner at night just to go to the toilet. If he wanted to shower, he would have to go even further.
- one dressing side with cabinets 40 cm deep is unusable for us.

I don’t find either one well designed, although of course it will be a very beautiful house. Yours is probably even less well designed. The dirty entrance and pantry somehow interfere with each other, the square meters are somehow not properly used at all. How do you actually get through this carport door when there is a car inside? I also don’t understand why pantries are constantly planned, but the kitchen is then neglected. Where do opened beverage bottles for the day go? Where is the coffee machine/kitchen machine? Only tall cabinets are planned, but no countertop space. The pantry in your design only works with shelves, no cabinet doors! The bathroom in your design doesn’t work at all. And there is no wardrobe, the architect apparently included one in the mudroom; you have some improvised thing at the end of the corridor. I think the upper floor is better with the architect. In your design, the dressing room is a dark tube. The children’s room seems excessively large to me. Maybe one should simply plan an attic in the upper floor, and make the freezer room or storage somewhat smaller for that. I would place the carports on the property boundary.

I find the ground floor unnecessarily convoluted with many oversized corridors that end in some little cupboards. Rabbit warren. What I find really terrible is this construction of a mudroom and pantry. I always wonder what amount of dirt is supposed to be caught there? It’s not like it’s a ranch where the farmer and his 15 children stomp into the house after a hard day of castrating bulls. You just create strange rooms with many doors and little functional space and try to squeeze everything into the rather small floor plan. I would design the floor plan less based on appearance and wish list, and more according to real usage behavior. And need.

A house built with a timber frame construction, no matter the style, I would not build in Germany. Not suitable for the climate here and only causes trouble. At least the ground floor I would always build solidly. The attic can always be constructed with a timber frame method.

I don’t find either of them well designed, although it will of course be a very nice house.
Yours is probably even less coherent. Mudroom and pantry somehow interfere with each other, the square meters are somehow not properly used at all. How do you actually get through this carport door if there is a car parked in it?
I also don’t understand why pantries are constantly planned, but the kitchen is then treated as an afterthought. Where do half-open bottles for the day go? Where is the coffee machine/food processor placed? Only tall cabinets are planned, but no countertop space. Your pantry then only works with shelves, no cabinet doors!
The WC in your plan doesn’t work at all. And there is no wardrobe, the architect seems to have included it in the mudroom, you have some kind of improvised thing at the end of the hallway.
I find the upper floor better in the architect’s version. Your walk-in closet is a dark tube.
The children’s room seems excessively large to me.
Maybe one should simply plan a storage room on the upper floor, and make the freezer room or storage somewhat smaller.
I would put the carports on the property boundary.

Thanks for your feedback so far!

What exactly do you mean by "mudroom and pantry somehow interfere with each other"?
You can get through the carport door as long as you have only one car, like we do currently, and therefore there is space. If a second car comes, it will just be parked a bit shifted further back. I don’t see a real problem there.

In the kitchen, I have only planned 3 tall cabinets at the top of the plan. Do you find that a lot? The rest of the kitchen (4-5 m) is purely countertop workspace. The coffee machine and the processor stand there accordingly. The toaster and air fryer are supposed to be in the pantry.
Why doesn’t the pantry work? It could be minimally deeper, but otherwise, these are normal 60 cm kitchen cabinets with drawers and a minimum aisle width of 1 m in front of them.

Could you explain in more detail why the WC doesn’t work?

The architect did not plan the wardrobe in the mudroom, but to the right of it as a separate small area (to the left of the entrance). However, this will be eliminated because the front door is being shifted to the left. Therefore, we are looking for a new place for the guests’ wardrobe.
Putting the regular wardrobe in the mudroom contradicts the actual mudroom philosophy.

A skylight will of course be added to the dark tube. It was just hard to screenshot, but thanks for the hint.

What do you mean by "storage room on the upper floor"? Storage = warehouse? Most things are needed downstairs, so it would be inconvenient upstairs.

Technical room smaller than 10 sqm is a no-go.
Carport on the boundary is not possible because the carport has a roof.

I find the ground floor unnecessarily convoluted with many oversized hallways that end up in some little rooms. Rabbit warren. I find this construct of the dirt lock and pantry particularly bad. I always wonder what kind of dirt quantities are supposed to be caught there? It’s not like it’s a ranch where the farmer and his 15 children trudge into the house after a hard day castrating bulls. You just create strange chambers with many doors and little functional space and try to squeeze everything into the rather small floor plan. I would plan the floor plan less according to optics and wish list, but according to real usage behavior. And need.

Hi and thank you for your response!

Our idea of the "dirt lock" is that you can get to the kitchen with your groceries via a short, covered route and without dirty street shoes (rain, snow, grit sand, etc.). Or that the son comes home from sports/school and throws his backpack/sports gear into the corner there. I know enough normal cloakrooms in houses that are overflowing and always look messy. In addition, the lock also contains wardrobes for storing winter jackets and is part of the utility room.

Maybe the combination of pantry and lock is not quite ideal. However, the idea here was that a shopping bag with supplies and frozen goods (the freezer is located there) can stay directly there, while the other shopping bag moves into the kitchen. In other words, getting rid of everything one after the other on one route.

The floor plan actually originated from a description of everyday life. After that, the architect planned it. I personally find it impractical to have to carry my groceries from the carport to the house entrance, preferably in the rain, as many others do who do not have their garage/carport directly attached to the house. Covered and with a short route was the need and a real usage behavior for us.